It is well-known for industrial sized pipes, such as line pipes used by the gas and petro-chemical industries to be handled, stored, and transported many times between many venues using rail, ships, semi-trailers, or similar transportation vehicles before deployment. The present invention advantageously provides a logistics system which secures, protects, stores and transports industrial pipe, seamlessly from the Pipe Fabricator to the final trench.
Known pipe transportation systems are platforms or cradles that physically carry the weight of the pipe. The present invention by using the structural properties of the cargo (pipe) itself, advantageously eliminates the requirement for a standalone platform to carry the pipe. This in turn reduces the total mass of the equipment required to transport industrial pipe. This logistics efficiency provides for budget, safety and environmental benefits.
Furthermore, known pipe transportation systems require additional physical tensioning to be applied to the loads to prevent longitudinal and latitudinal movement of the pipes during transport. Longitudinal movement, of the pipes during transit may lead to pipes striking the cabin of the transport vehicle or extending outwardly from the back of a load, creating a danger to other road users or adjacent rail carriages for example. Lateral movement pipes may result in pipes striking each other on the carrying platform or cradle thereby potentially damaging the pipes. Such additional tensioning and strapping of pipes is very time consuming, often poorly regulated and is reliant on ongoing human factors to ensure load security.
The present invention advantageously eliminates any load restraint ambiguity by mechanically retaining the pipes to a level which may satisfy National and International Transport Regulations.
Further, traditional cantile stowage of pipes requires that bottom pipes in a load have enough structural integrity to withstand the weight of any pipes above them. Having pipes directly resting on each other during transport may lead to abrasive damage of the pipes as they may constantly rub against each during transport.
Alternatively, it is known to offset pipes through the use of spacers to facilitate partial loading such that any top pipe does not sit directly above the one below it during transport. However, the process of inserting spacers and offsetting industrial pipes during loading on to the transport vehicle is also very time consuming and labour intensive.
The present invention advantageously provides enhanced protection of the pipes in a load for transport by transferring the weight of the load through the pipe intermodal logistics apparatus; as well as preventing longitudinal and latitudinal movement of pipes during transit.
Throughout the specification, the use of the term intermodal refers to the fact that the apparatus and system may be deployed in a variety of transportation devices such as heavy vehicles, rail and ships as well as retained in storage facilities.